Thiruvananthapuram to host NALSA’s regional meet on human-wildlife conflict on August 30

The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), under the aegis of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA), will host a two-day regional conference aimed at addressing the growing challenges of human-wildlife conflict in the country.

Surya Kant, judge, Supreme Court of India who is also the executive chairman of NALSA, will inaugurate ‘Human-Wildlife conflict and co-existence: Legal and policy perspectives’ at the Kerala Legislative Assembly Hall on Saturday.

Nitin Jamdar, Chief Justice, Kerala High Court, who is also patron-in-chief, KeLSA; M.M. Sundaresh, judge, Supreme Court of India; B.V. Nagarathna, judge, Supreme Court of India; Vikram Nath, judge, Supreme Court of India and Chairman, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee; A. Muhammed Mustaque, judge, High Court of Kerala and executive chairman of KeLSA; C.S. Dias, judge, High Court of Kerala; R. Venkataramani, Attorney General of India; and P. Rajeev, Minister of Law, Kerala, will be present.

Delegates and legal luminaries from across six States and two Union Territories will attend the conference. They include judges of the Supreme Court; Chief Justices of the High Courts of Madras, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka; member secretaries of various State Legal Services Authorities and Union Territories; and others.

Data from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change indicate that over 500 elephants were killed between 2014-15 and 2018-19, mostly owing to human-elephant conflict. During the same period, 2,361 people were killed as a result of conflict with elephants. From 2020 to 2021, 31 human beings were killed by tigers and 461 by elephants. At the same time, 104 tiger deaths were under scrutiny and there were 93 elephant deaths owing to train accidents, electrocution, poaching and burning, a statement from Thiruvananthapuram District Legal Services Authority said.

The working sessions at the conference will deliberate on a range of pressing issues such as habitat loss and fragmentation, rapid urbanisation, limitation of forest laws, use of technology in meaningful disaster management, introspection on the legislative frameworks, need for evolving uniform legal framework, role of judiciary in balancing human rights and wildlife protection, management of conflict at grassroot level, realities and experiences of the tribal community in the ca nd so on.

The valedictory function will be addressed by Kerala High Court Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar.